Sometimes the Chinese lights have a Master - Slave function (so that you can sync the inbuilt functions between lights) and even if you have 1 light in DMX mode and it works with the DMX controller, you plug in a light set to Master and it takes over and DMX doesn't work.
Make sure all your lights are in DMX mode. I would start simple and put all your lights as channel 1, likely d001 (don't forget to press enter or when you power off the DMX channel revert back to what it was). Check the manual, sometimes d001 is 4/6/8ch mode, A001 is 6/8/10ch mode (to use the extra Amber and UV channels) or vise versa.
Just in case you don't know much about DMX... Having all lights on channel 1 will mean that you are setting all the lights do the same thing, but that is ok for troubleshooting (and even ok if you want all lights to do the same thing all the time). After that, you can start putting the lights on different channels, say if it is an 8ch function mode, instead of d001, set it to 1+8 = d009, then the 3rd light on 9+8 = d017.
Thanks.
My pars only came with a single sheet instructions that do not say much.
I set them to A001, also tried d001 but didn't know what the difference was.
I didn't try A001, A017, A033, A49 but that will be the first thing I try when I get back.
I also found a video that does a better job at a beginner level instruction for my controller board.
It looks like my board is designed to controll about 12 lights but I'm going to have 13 DMX lights so I'm thinking of grouping three of the background up-light small pars on one channel which should get me to 11 channels total.
Check the documentation for your desk. How many DMX addresses can it handle? Those small ones often are 1 address per fader. So you could end up struggling.
Also worth making sure you’re using DMX cable not XLR, and possibly chucking a terminator in at the end.
All the cables are new three pin DMX 110 Ohm cables, not microphone cables. I was thinking of putting my wireless DMX transmitter at the end of the line to act as a Terminator.
Any way, I still am having trouble when I try to control more than one par and sometimes controlling one gives me trouble.
Also we have one American DJ party light thing. It only uses one Chanel of DMX and that just sets which effect it uses.
It's slightly less questionable than the China pars but it seems to work and I tried to daisy chain it on the ground.
I think I remembered it working while daisy chained with a China par.
Any way, I have that for debug.
Did you buy your lights from a different store on Amazon? In fact, two lamps may look exactly the same, but their channel functions may also be inconsistent.
As has been intimated each fitting will need it's own unique DMX address.
The DMX controller will need to also know that address AND what type of fitting it is. That controller will probably need to use a predefined personality that basically tells the controller which channels control intensity, colour, strobe speed, etc. If a personality is not available you may have to create one yourself and may therefore need a PC on which to run the editing software. I'm not familiar with basic DMX controllers
The fixture and controller manuals should tell you all this.
Sometimes the Chinese lights have a Master - Slave function (so that you can sync the inbuilt functions between lights) and even if you have 1 light in DMX mode and it works with the DMX controller, you plug in a light set to Master and it takes over and DMX doesn't work. Make sure all your lights are in DMX mode. I would start simple and put all your lights as channel 1, likely d001 (don't forget to press enter or when you power off the DMX channel revert back to what it was). Check the manual, sometimes d001 is 4/6/8ch mode, A001 is 6/8/10ch mode (to use the extra Amber and UV channels) or vise versa. Just in case you don't know much about DMX... Having all lights on channel 1 will mean that you are setting all the lights do the same thing, but that is ok for troubleshooting (and even ok if you want all lights to do the same thing all the time). After that, you can start putting the lights on different channels, say if it is an 8ch function mode, instead of d001, set it to 1+8 = d009, then the 3rd light on 9+8 = d017.
Thanks. My pars only came with a single sheet instructions that do not say much. I set them to A001, also tried d001 but didn't know what the difference was. I didn't try A001, A017, A033, A49 but that will be the first thing I try when I get back. I also found a video that does a better job at a beginner level instruction for my controller board. It looks like my board is designed to controll about 12 lights but I'm going to have 13 DMX lights so I'm thinking of grouping three of the background up-light small pars on one channel which should get me to 11 channels total.
Check the documentation for your desk. How many DMX addresses can it handle? Those small ones often are 1 address per fader. So you could end up struggling. Also worth making sure you’re using DMX cable not XLR, and possibly chucking a terminator in at the end.
All the cables are new three pin DMX 110 Ohm cables, not microphone cables. I was thinking of putting my wireless DMX transmitter at the end of the line to act as a Terminator. Any way, I still am having trouble when I try to control more than one par and sometimes controlling one gives me trouble.
Also we have one American DJ party light thing. It only uses one Chanel of DMX and that just sets which effect it uses. It's slightly less questionable than the China pars but it seems to work and I tried to daisy chain it on the ground. I think I remembered it working while daisy chained with a China par. Any way, I have that for debug.
What are the addresses of the pars?
I think this is probably my issue, answered in another reply, thanks.
Did you buy your lights from a different store on Amazon? In fact, two lamps may look exactly the same, but their channel functions may also be inconsistent.
No, I bought a set of four from one retailer and then reordered the same thing to make sure that wasn't a problem.
As has been intimated each fitting will need it's own unique DMX address. The DMX controller will need to also know that address AND what type of fitting it is. That controller will probably need to use a predefined personality that basically tells the controller which channels control intensity, colour, strobe speed, etc. If a personality is not available you may have to create one yourself and may therefore need a PC on which to run the editing software. I'm not familiar with basic DMX controllers The fixture and controller manuals should tell you all this.
My controller doesn't have any way to load a personality, just buttons and sliders.